Three ISIL commanders killed in Iraqi army anti-terrorist operations

Three commanders of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group, one of them a Saudi national, have been killed in Iraqi army’s air strikes in al-Anbar province.

The Iraqi air force struck the ISIL hideouts in the city of Haditha in Anbar province on Saturday, killing three ISIL commanders.

In another incident, Kurdish peshmerga forces, backed by volunteer fighters, foiled an ISIL offensive on Tuz Khurmatu, a town in Salaheddin province, killing around 40 militants and forcing them to retreat, a local official said.

Five volunteer fighters also were killed in the fighting.

Iraq’s crisis escalated after the ISIL took control of Mosul in a lightning advance on June 8.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the extremist-marked ISIL insurgency while more than a million people have been displaced so far, according to estimates by the United Nations.